New Delhi, Aug. 29 -- Brands like Lego, Ikea, Nokia, Ericsson, and Kone are popular worldwide. In recent years, the global popularity of apps like Spotify and weight loss drugs (particularly Ozempic) has made Nordic brands household names.

But few know how these global entities compare to the tiny economic size of their country of origin. The Nordic countries of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland are admired for having achieved the impossible.

These tiny countries have produced businesses that dominate their respective industries at a global scale.

In the early 1990s, Finland faced a severe economic recession following the collapse of the Soviet Union, its main trading partner. The country's traditional industries were struggling, an...